An electrical connector designed to have a reduced required force for mating is disclosed, for example, in International Patent Application No. WO 2015/086619 A. Another such connector 10′ according to the prior art is shown in FIG. 8. The connector 10′, as shown in FIG. 8, has a lever 11′. The lever 11′ rotates around a rotation axis R in the direction of Arrows O-C between an open state shown in FIG. 8 and a closed state in which the connector 11′ overlaps a housing 12.
When a mating connector 20′ is mated to the connector 10′, the lever 11′ is in the open state shown in FIG. 8 and the mating connector 20′ is inserted into the connector 10′ in a mating direction. A pair of cam followers 21′ each formed on a side in the width direction of the mating connector 20′ enter a pair of cam grooves 111 each formed on a side in the width direction of the lever 11′. An operating section 112 of the lever 11′ is then rotated in the direction of Arrow C up to the closed state in which the lever 11′ overlaps the housing 12. The cam followers 21′ are drawn in along the shape of the cam grooves 111 and the mating connector 20′ mates with the connector 10′. The leverage principal works according to a ratio between the distance between the rotation axis R of the lever 11′ and the cam grooves 111 and the distance between the rotation axis R and the operating section 112 of the lever 11′. This makes it possible to mate the connector 20′ to the connector 10′ with a low operating force. When the lever 11′ is rotated up to the closed state, the lever 11′ locks with a pair of locking protrusions 13 each provided on a side in the width direction of the housing 12 and the lever 11′ is held in the closed state.
For the connector 10′, the force required to mate with the mating connector 20′ is reduced. However, adding the lever 11′ leads to an increase in size. Further, the mating connector 20′ is drawn in only at two positions in the width direction; a proceeding direction of the mating connector 20′ may deviate from the mating direction and stable contact is not reliably obtained.
Japanese Patent Application No. 11-214070 A discloses a connector in which an engaging projection is arranged on a bottom of a slider. A guiding slit into which the engaging projection is inserted is disposed in a connector housing. The slider is prevented from position shifting.
A card edge connector has printed wirings arranged at an edge of a printed circuit board and used as contacts to electrically connect with a mating connector. A connector of the card edge connector type is so made that electrical components and the like mounted on a circuit board are sealed together therewith by resin, and thus, the connector becomes heavy and an integrated rigid body as a whole. When backlash occurs between the card edge connector and its mating connector due to vibration or the like, contacts may be rubbed and damaged, causing contact failures. If the mating connector uses a slider to obtain a low mating force, the slider will be interposed between the card edge connector and a housing of the mating connector. The slider is arranged to form a gap between the slider and the housing for smooth sliding. For this reason, however, backlash may occur between the connectors in a mated state and may exacerbate undesirable electrical performance effects. However, effects due to such backlash are common to a case in which a slider is used to obtain a low mating force, and not limited to a case of the card edge connector type.